Norway Boleh

Jiann Chyuan discovered how Norwegians showcase their’ boleh’ side despite the fact that they do not shout out the phrase loud like every Malaysian does.

A recently visit to Ormen Lange, literally translated as ‘ long snake’, a gas production project in Nyhamna and its service plant in Kristiansund, has opened my eyes to what Norway, a tiny population country is capable in doing.

Undoubtedly, this mega project, which supplies about 20% of the total gas consumption of United Kingdom via subsea pipeline from Norway, is a project one would feel absolutely horrible to miss.

I have zero intention in telling all the details about this project. Therefore, feel comfortable to google the project in another window (or tab). What really interests me is despite the fact that Norway has only 4 millions of population, it is capable in inventing not one, but numerous first-of-its-kind super high-end and advanced technology.

Needless to say, the Ormen Lange project which I’m mentioning here is one of those firsts. But there were actually quite an awesome amount of surprises during my two-day excursion.

One worth-mentioned project that sprouted out without careful planning in this excursion was the encounter of the first floating bridge in the world. It is just a bridge, that floats, you may say. But it is a vivid demonstration to how Norwegian is able in utilising theoretical knowledge to realistic implementation.

In fact, the project is such unique that engineers from some of the advanced countries, for instance, Germany and Japan, were coming to learn from the Norwegians.

Besides, there were also these eight different bridges, with shapes and curves absolutely out-of-the-box that link the Atlantic coast of Norway, that kept all the passengers in my bus fascinated and exhaled with deep impressiveness.

Okay, I’ve been talking a lot about bridges. But surely, the advancement among Norwegians is not restrained to bridge construction solely. There are just a lot of tiny little thoughtful projects that truly put Norwegians into a position where the world can look up to.

Gosh! I’m not worshipping Norway. It is just that the longer I live in this country, which means the more I have got to know about this north part of the world, the more resemblances that I found to my beloved home country, which are, however, directing me to think differently about Malaysia.

Generating tones of wealth with the immense amount of oil and gas blessing from God waiting for the hungry explorer for extraction is surely the biggest resemblance between Malaysia and Norway. But sadly, while Norway is propelling its intelligence powered propeller in many different arenas to drive its country forward, Malaysia opts for a different approach by buying technologies abroad in most of the fields.

What is the reason for 4 millions people to be able to do it while 23 millions fail?

The questions worth ponders are: How far does my own country wants to move forward? By what means we would utilise our brain resources for the future development of our country? What would the encouragement for having more kids mean if we are not developing the minds of our next generation?

And lastly, how long do we still want to shout out ‘Malaysia Boleh’ loudly without feeling embarrassing whilst we are constantly looking upon technology from overseas?

P.S.: The question regarding stupidity lingers around me lately. Am I stupid or am I not having enough input from previous study?

Caption:
Above: Floating bridge.
Top left: Full capacity test in Nyhamna. The flame was about 60m high.
Top right: A random snapshot in Kristiansund.
Bottom: We need some mistakes to balance our imbalance soul, don't we?